Two weeks of almost unceasing monsoon rains and flooding destroyed
an estimated P1 billion worth of crops and livestock in Central Luzon
alone, the Region 3 office of the National Disaster Risk Reduction
Management Council (NDRRMC) said in a report on Friday.
The damage to rice, corn, livestock, fisheries, and high value
commercial crops totaled P1,095,515,193.47, according to field reports
received by the Central Luzon Regional DRRMC (RDRRMC3) as of Friday
morning, a copy of which was obtained by GMA News Online while waiting
for President Benigno Aquino III to arrive at Abulid Evacuation Center
in Paniqui, Tarlac.
The report was written as a
memorandum by RDRRMC3 chairperson and Office of Civil Defense-Central
Luzon director Josefina Timoteo to NDRRMC executive director Benito
Ramos.
The damage estimates covered the
provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, and Zambales. For Pampanga, the damage
was placed at P847,323,735.
The damage to crops and livestock in Bulacan was P204,556,617.75 and P43,634,840.72 for Zambales, according to the report.
Inaccurate data?
Inaccurate data?
“We have to take the data with a grain of salt,” Agriculture
Undersecretary for Field Operations Joel Rudinas said in a phone
interview with GMA News Online.
“The data of NDRRMC (and its field offices) are localized, acquired from local government units,” he said.
The Agriculture official noted the numbers in the RDRRMC3 report might
not be totally reliable, because the farmers who gave the information
regarding their losses could have fed them the wrong figures.
He said the department has a system for calculating the value of crops and livestock lost.
Rudinas said inaccurate information could have been relayed because of
exaggeration, citing as an example a man whose house had been
overwhelmed by flood and whose initial reaction was to say he lost
everything only to realize at the end of the day that some of his
belongings had survived.
Rice can survive flooding
Rice can survive flooding
In the case of standing rice crops that were supposedly destroyed,
Rudinas said the plant may have been overwhelmed by flood but it can
survive flooded conditions for up to two weeks.
So, it could not be counted immediately as a loss just because the rice
field was underwater for several days, “because their environment is
water,” he added.
Along those lines, Rudinas
said “ruined” crops might not be ruined after all – only wet. Perhaps
the overall calculation of the value of crops, livestock, and fisheries
that were supposedly destroyed might not have been done correctly, he
added.
The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics,
the Agriculture Department’s official numbers-crunching agency, will
probe the extent and amount of damage the rains and floods dealt on the
sector starting next week, Rudinas noted.
In an earlier interview, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said that the farm sector damage could be “minimal” because Typhoon Gener and the southwest monsoon came during the planting season.
There is a chance that more than 90 percent or 24,032 hectares land planted to rice, corn, and vegetables – most of which are still in the seedling stage – will recover, Alcala said
Agricultural economics experts and current Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said farmers whose fields were damaged could still replant as it is still within planting season.
“This time, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA), nagpaplant pa lang ang farmers so damage in crops is not that extensive compared to Ondoy,” Balisacan said in a phone interview.
Asked about immediate impact of the monsoon rains in prices of harvest products, Balisacan said: “It’s too soon to tell.”
Central Luzon was one of the regions hardest hit by monsoon rains,
which also flooded many parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
